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Warm, gooey, soft homemade cinnamon rolls with a sweet and creamy frosting that melts deliciously into them… oh my.

cinnamon rolls with frosting in a white baking dish

Update: This was originally posted in 2015, and has been updated with some prettier pictures. Some original shots remain. 10 points for guessing which ones those are!!

I love some baking cinnamon rolls. I have made many recipes for these, and have never posted one before, because, I had never found cinnamon roll recipe in my experiments. And now I have. Have a seat.

I make the dough in my bread machine on a Saturday morning, which is awesome because the work is taken out of it, and I am free to chase small boys around, attempting to minimize the carnage that is our living room these days. Of course, I failed on THAT… but, whatever, let’s talk cinnamon rolls!

These are so easy to make, seriously. Once you get the dough handling down pat, you simply pour on some melted butter, and some brown sugar and cinnamon, roll ’em up, cut em, rise em and bake em. Then cover em with a really easy to make cream cheese frosting.

Drooling yet? I am, and I’m just typing.

My children LOVE these. They hang about us with mouths open waiting to be given some. I personally think we share way too much with them, and we need to stop that…

I know not everyone has a bread machine, so I have included directions using a stand mixer and dough hook.

Ingredients:

Dough

1 cup warm milk 110 degrees F/45 degrees C
2 eggs room temperature
1/3 cup butter melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Filling

1 cup dark brown sugar packed
2 1/2 Tbs ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter softened

Frosting

3 oz cream cheese softened
1/4 cup butter softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbs milk

How to make Cinnamon Rolls

Bread Machine Instructions:

Place dough ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
After the dough cycle is done, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes – this is an important step, don’t skip!
In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll dough into a 16×21-inch rectangle.
Spread dough with butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture.
Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. I use (plain, unflavored) dental floss to do this.
Place a piece of dental floss under the rolled dough, 1 inch from the end. Bring the floss up around the dough and cross it over the top, cutting through the dough and filling. Repeat at 1-inch intervals.
Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. While the rolls are rising, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Bake rolls in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt and milk.
Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

cinnamon roll with frosting on a white plate

Stand Mixer/Dough Hook instructions:

Combine milk and sugar in a bowl, and put in microwave until the temp is reached (it’s supposed to be lukewarm, not hot).
Sprinkle yeast over the surface, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy.
(Tiny bubbles should begin to appear on the surface or around the edge of the container and it should start to smell yeasty).
Add the yeast mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attached.
Add the flour, salt, eggs and butter and knead the dough for 8-10 minutes. It should form a ball, and be relatively smooth.
Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with a kitchen towel.
Let sit in a warm place, until doubled in size (about an hour). Punch down – follow from Step 2 above)

(these are the original process pics – I’ll update… one day – but these show you what each stage should look like)

Cinnamon Roll Icing Recipe

Using an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese, butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, salt and milk. Add more milk or sugar depending on desired consistency.
Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

FAQs and Kylee’s Notes

You may use all-purpose flour in this recipe, but bread flour has a high gluten content, making the dough stretchy and soft.
If you prefer – instead of melting the butter for the filling, you can use softened butter and spread it evenly over the dough before topping with the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture.
MORE BREAKFAST RECIPES:
- Bacon Sausage Breakfast Sliders – a batch of these breakfast sliders is JUST the thing for the weekend. Breakfast YOUR way with bacon, sausage, egg, and cheese in a soft bun, brushed with garlic-butter… yes, please!
- Easy Blueberry Waffles from Scratch – These waffles are light and fluffy and golden brown – and take just a few minutes to whip up. You can have 4 Belgian sized waffles in about 15 minutes! DIG IN!!
- Vanilla Maple Baked French Toast – Delightfully flavored french toast, topped with a sweet/nutty/crunchy topping, be warned – you will get addicted!!
- Salted Caramel Rolls from Tornadough Alli – these are a surefire hit at the table. Sweet and salty makes this the perfect morning treat.
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